Contemporary Music Festival 2023 by Jennifer Lucking
by Jennifer Lucking (Feb 2023)
The University of Leeds International Concert Series is hosting a Contemporary Music Festival, beginning with a lunchtime performance on Friday 10th February, and is comprised of six concerts, running until Friday 17th February. Here at the concert series we are looking forward to an exciting week as this is our premier contemporary music festival.
Contemporary music as a broad term is defined as current or modern compositions written recently. It might be easy to generally associate a concert series with classical music; potentially even in a contemporary music festival we might expect exclusively contemporary classical music by composers such as Philip Glass, Arvo Pärt or Max Richter to be at the forefront. Interestingly out of the artists performing in the Contemporary Music Festival this coming week only a third of them are performing contemporary classical music. One of these performances involves the fantastic duo of mezzo soprano Jennifer Johnston and world class pianist Joseph Middleton who will be performing a varied set featuring works by Frances-Hoad, Benjamin Britten, Ned Rorem and Samuel Barber. The rest of the festival is comprised of typically more ‘modern’ works; the experimental type that may spring to mind when you first think of contemporary music.
The modern classical and avant-garde singer Stephanie Lamprea opens the festival on the day of her album release - Georges Aperghis’ 14 Recitations for solo female voice, which she will be performing selections from in the concert. This album uses extended vocal techniques and atonality to demonstrate how trapped the performer feels in her attempts yet inability to be understood when speaking of her trauma. She originally trained as an operatic coloratura soloist and has ventured into the world of contemporary classical music to use her voice as avant-garde performance art. Alongside the 14 Recitations, on 10th February Stephanie will also be premiering new works for voice by student composers from the University of Leeds.
The second concert: ELISION is an international contemporary music ensemble that revitalizes performance practice and technique. Their concert will showcase saxophones, clarinets and piano in works by composers such as Irish artist Ann Cleare, who works in the areas of concert music, opera, extended sonic environments, and hybrid instrumental design. The next two concerts are the experimental pianist Kate Harrison-Ledger and artist and musician Ben Adamson. Kate collaborates with composers to write for the performing body, exploring the effects of musical notation on the way she moves when performing, and Leeds alumnus Ben will be doing a sound installation exploring new and experimental music.
The festival will close with a lunchtime concert from lovemusic; a six-part collaborative new music ensemble from Strasbourg, comprised of flute, clarinet, viola, cello, guitar, and electronics. They are an innovative group who work with composers that actively collaborate with musicians during the creative process. The title of the concert is ‘Heart of Light’ which visualises the hopeful end of winter looking towards spring. It will consist of five modern works by innovative composers including lecturer Mic Spencer’s new piece nuthinlik disperr (Love letter no. 5) in Memoriam Hans-Joachim Hespos, for quintet.
We hope that you will be able to enjoy the concerts and explore some new music!